


Not Your Valentine

by louistumlinson



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, late valentine's day au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 14:49:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1230463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/louistumlinson/pseuds/louistumlinson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry double books his house sitters and it's not quite as bad as Louis thought it would be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Your Valentine

**Author's Note:**

> vday was barely a week ago okay (i'm sorry)

Louis isn’t exactly positive why Harry was so insistent that Louis watch his flat while he was on vacation, it’s not like Harry ever stayed in his own home anyways, but who was Louis to say no to staying in his best friend’s posh flat for a week. Also, Harry’s pout can be incredibly hard to say no to, his pout combined with his constant pestering that is.

 It’s not like Louis really wanted to be in his own flat tonight anyways. Valentine’s Day isn’t Louis’ favourite holiday, especially when he’s got no one to spend it with, but watching movies at Harry’s is definitely preferable to listening to loud music through his headphones when Zayn brings Perrie home. Harry’s couch is more comfortable as well, less weird stains and way squishier than Louis and Zayn’s.

 Louis’ lying stretched on this clean, squishy couch on a Friday night all by himself and watching The Notebook because the only other DVD he could find was Love Actually and Louis was not going to watch a Christmas movie in February. He feels pretty lame about being alone on Valentine’s Day, but he figures he would’ve had wine if he was on a date tonight, and he has wine now so really it’s the same thing. Really.

 A baby-faced Ryan Gosling is holding Rachel McAdams and talking to her about birds when Louis hears a noise and freezes. It sounds like there’s someone jiggling a key into the lock. There is someone trying to get into his house. Harry’s house. Whatever, not the point. Louis’ heart kicks into overdrive, he does not know how to deal with burglars. Or murderers. Louis grabs for the remote to wield as a weapon and gets ready to defend himself from the intruder, he’s far too pretty to be murdered. The door swings open and Louis tenses as the tall murderer steps in.  

 “Oh,” he says, lowering the remote and eyeing up Nick Grimshaw. “Kinda wish you were a burglar, honestly, coulda done with some excitement tonight.”

 Nick jumps, obviously not expecting to find another person in Harry’s flat. Well, that makes two of them. Louis scowls and Nick rearranges his expression to look disinterested instead of obviously alarmed, “What are you doing here, Tomlinson?”

 “I’m Harry’s best mate, why wouldn’t I be here?” Louis is mildly insulted. He has every right to be here. “Why are you here? That’s a better question, I’d say.”

 Nick shrugs out of his coat, still eyeing Louis with suspicious, “Harry asked me to come check up on his flat while he was away.” He grins sharply, “To make sure no strange men started living in it, I suppose.”

 “No,” Louis says slowly, confused. “Harry asked me to watch his flat while he was gone. Practically begged me to stay over, actually.” Nick raises his stupid eyebrows like he doesn’t believe him, so Louis takes his phone out with a sigh and flips through all of Harry’s weird emoji texts to show Nick the evidence.

 Nick waves him off,  “Whatever, he still asked me over as well.”

 “But do you have the texts to prove it?” Louis smirks.

 The look on Nick’s face is an amusing mixture of annoyance and disbelief. Louis feels a bit bad for Nick, must be hard to gain such little enjoyment from the good things in life (Louis). Honestly though, he’s not entirely surprised that Harry mucked things up, he’s a good kid but Harry can be a bit disorganized at the best of times. Nick is standing awkwardly behind the couch Louis is once again lying on, and Louis feels bad for him yet again. It’s uncomfortable.

 He sighs, “Well sit down then, Grimshaw. Not your fault Harry’s a bit of a tosser, yeah?”

 Nick frowns, sitting hesitantly on the couch. “Harry’s not a tosser, he’s a good mate.”

 Louis shoots Nick an unimpressed look. Harry double-booked housesitters for his holiday, he’s at least a little bit of a tosser. Louis shakes his head and walks to the kitchen to grab another bottle of wine and a glass for Nick, he figures they’ll need it.

 “So,” Nick says when Louis hands him a glass of wine and sits back down, “This is how the famous Louis Tomlinson spends his nights? Drinking and slagging off his mates?”

 Louis rolls his eyes so hard it almost hurts. “God Nick, get over it. I like Harry, love him even, but I thought I was going to be murdered by a terrifying intruder earlier, so I think a bit of annoyance is in order.”

 “Lucky for you there was no terrifying intruder,” Nick grins.

 “Debatable,” Louis grunts disagreeably.

 Nick snorts and turns his attention to the television and whatever Ryan Gosling is up to now. Louis takes a sip of his wine and realizes this hanging out with Nick thing isn’t as bad as he thought it would be. Nick’s been a good friend of Harry’s for awhile now, and Louis has thought he was awful for just about as long. The thing with Nick is that realistically he’s probably not that bad; Harry can hang around some questionable people but Nick’s always been good to him, so Louis doesn’t hate him. It’s just that Harry is Louis’ best friend and Nick sometimes gets in the way of Louis being Harry’s best friend. It’s a little childish and a lot selfish, but at least Louis can admit it. In private. To himself.

 It’s not like Nick has ever been anything more than borderline polite to Louis anyways. Though Louis tries his best to avoid him, if Louis goes to a party with Harry, Nick is nearly always there and they always end up in an argument about something. Usually nothing serious, but still, there’s only so many times Louis can deal with Grimshaw’s appalling opinions on music and dreadful pet names before becoming permanently annoyed.

 Tonight though, tonight has been fine. Good, even. Louis’ maybe been staring blankly at Nick for too long because Nick’s giving him a questioning look. Louis sticks his tongue out like the frustrating child Nick is always claiming he is. Nick rolls his eyes and turns away again. Sitting in silence is doing wonderful things for this friendship, Louis hasn’t even wanted to hit Nick since he thought he was a burglar.

 “Why is it you’re here tonight, darling?” Nick breaks the silence stupidly. If he was going to ruin the comfortable silence Nick could’ve at least done so with a compliment or an offer to order pizza.

 “I kind of want to hit you again,” Louis says, because hey, he does.

 “That’s.. not what I asked, but okay thank you.”

 Louis brings a hand up to his face in frustration. “We’ve gone over this, have we not? I am a wonderful best friend and also Harry’s couch is really nice. Here we are.”

 Nick shakes his head, his stupid hair bobbing around, “No, I just mean. Today’s Valentine’s Day.”

 “Yes, thank you Nick. I was unaware.” Whatever good feelings Louis was having about Nick a few minutes ago are evaporating quickly. Nick is supposedly charming, but all Louis ever gets from him is irritating and vaguely insulting.

 “Just figured you would have plans, is all,” Nick shrugs, glancing sideways at Louis.

 “This was my plan,” Louis snaps. “Sitting here with you in Harry’s flat instead of going on a date with the boyfriend I do not have. God, Nick.” Louis kind of wishes a murderer had entered Harry’s flat instead.

 Nick looks properly chastised. “No I didn’t mean… I don’t have a date either.”

 “Can’t see why,” Louis snips. “You’re so fun to be around. Great to talk to.” He refills his glass, glancing at Nick’s own, nearly empty, and setting the bottle down, feeling petty but mad enough not to care.

 Nick’s grumbling something but Louis isn’t paying attention. He’s too busy angrily texting Harry, who Louis’s sure is to blame for this whole mess. He sends three different angry faces and four knife emojis. Harry replies with an assortment of monkeys covering their faces. Louis scowls down at the screen, Harry is the worst. Second worst, he thinks, glaring at Nick.

 

***

 

Louis wasn’t planning on falling asleep, but he supposes there’s only so much wine a person can drink on an extremely comfortable couch without getting a little drowsy. He cracks an eye open and realizes that he is not lying on a pillow, but a shirt. Specifically a stupid band shirt worn by an even stupider person.

 “You’re still here,” Louis observes groggily and a bit confusedly.

 Nick blinks. “Yeah well, you were sleeping on top of me, duck. I couldn’t exactly move.” Louis narrows his eyes but he can’t really argue, he was definitely just sleeping on top of Nick. He’s not sure how that happened but he’s even less sure why Nick didn’t just shove him off and dump a glass of water on him or something. He lifts his head off of Nick’s chest when he realizes he’s still on top of him and clears his throat, trying to break the tension he suddenly feels squeezing at his chest.

 The Notebook is long over and forgotten, the television now showing an old episode of MasterChef that Nick must’ve switched to while Louis was sleeping.

 “I should probably go, yeah?” Nick asks quietly. He’s sitting so close to Louis on the couch and maybe it’s just because he was a decent enough pillow, but Louis feels like maybe Nick shouldn’t.

 “It’s late,” he says, “Might as well stay, Grimshaw.”

 “Yeah,” Nick says. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.”

 Louis feels a bit like he’s still sleeping and lays his head back onto Nick. The thing is, he’s definitely awake, and he can definitely smell Nick and he doesn’t smell like unadulterated pretension like Louis always assumed he would. He smells… warm. God, maybe he is still sleeping, warm isn’t a smell. He twists his neck to look up at Nick only to find him staring down at Louis. He opens his mouth to say something about pictures lasting longer, but then Nick’s long fingers ghosting across his hip startle him off his train of thought.

 Louis sits up a little and he’s not positive who started it, but now he’s kissing Nick Grimshaw on Harry’s couch and it’s… nice. Nick clearly knows what he’s doing and the kiss is slow and hot and not at all the feverish, angry kiss Louis sometimes thought would happen after an argument when he caught himself thinking about it at all. Louis pulls back and Nick looks at him like he’s a deer that might startle if he moves too quickly.

 “Not gonna bite you,” Louis laughs softly.

 “Shame,” Nick grins. Louis rolls his eyes and leans in again.

 “Nick,” Louis pauses, climbing into Nick’s lap and putting his hands on his waist. “This doesn’t mean we’re like, valentines or summat.”

Nick snorts and kisses him briefly. “Of course not, princess.”


End file.
